Arthur white



UNrTnn STATES PATENT OFFICE,

ARTHUR VHITE, OF SIIEBOI'GAN, \VISCONSIN, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO CHARLES VAN NOSTRAND, OF SAME PLACE.

KNCCKDOWN FU RNITU RE.4

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 408,278, dated August 6, 1889.

i Application tied July/,21, 1888. Serial No. 280,622. (No model.)

.To au whom it may concern:

Be it known that LARTHUR WHITE, of Sheboygan, in the county of Sheboygan and State of Wisconsin, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Knockdown Furniture,

of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to knockdown furniture, and has for its object to provide kitchenio safes, wardrobcs,or other furniture of this general character, so constructed that the piece of furniture may beset up for use easily and quickly by unskilled persons, and will be very strong anddurable in use, and may be packed in knockdown condition in small space for economical handling, storage, or shipment.

The invention consists in certain novel features, of construction and combinations of parts of the knockdown furniture, all as hereinafter described and claimed.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specilieation, in which similar letters of reference indicate correspondingparts in all the figures.

Figure l is a front view of a kitchen-safe, in vertical transverse section, taken on the line in Fig. 2. Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional end or side view taken on the line y @j in Fig. l; and Figs. 3, 4, 5, (i, and 7 are enlarged detail sectional views, to behereinafter referred to.

My invention relates more particularly to the manner of holding the fronts and backs of kitchen-safes or wardrobes or like articles of furniture to the end parts thereof. The drawings represent a kitchen-safe embodying the invention, and in reference to which I will particularly describe the improvements.

The kitchen-safe, like many articles of furniture, is made with a front A, a back B, and opposite ends C C, which may have any desired relative proportions. I show the safe provided with upper doors a and lower doors a2 in its front, .and with a couple of drawers D D fitted a little below the center of the safe and between the doors, while above the drawers the safe is provided with a sliding shelf E, which may be pulled out to serve as a bread-board or as a receptacle for temporaforated panels of any design, as my method rily holding articles of food for use, or substances removed from or to be put into the safe, the shelf thus serving to increase the capacity of the safe. The shelf may be fitted below the drawers in safes of other proportions or design, and in any case will be a desirableand useful adjunct of the piece ot' furniture.

The ends C C of the safe may have either a solid or paneled construction, and the panels 6o may be perforated or imperforate, and may be made of wire-gauze material in any approved way; and the front and back of the safe may likewise be fitted with solid or perof uniting the front, back, and ends of a piece of furniture of this general character interferes little or none with the adoption of any preferred exterior design or construction.

For connecting the front, back, and ends of the safe, I employ cross-bars F, which may have any cross-sectional form, but which are preferably round, as shown, and are provided with dovetail-shaped tenons ff, which also are preferably round, and are formed one at 7 5 each end of each cross-bar, which thus are provided with shoulders f next the tenons. These cross-bar tenons f are adapted to enter recesses or lnortises G H, made, respectively, in the front and back of the safe. The recess G, which is shown in the safe-front A, is made with an upper portion g large enough to admit the extremity of the dovetail tenon f at one end of a cross-bar F, and the lower part g of the recess is contracted toward the inner face of the front, or is in dovetail shape, so that when the tenon falls or is pushed into it the cross-bar will firmly lock with the safefront. The recess H, which is shown in the safe-back B, is made gradually deeper from its upper broader end to its lower narrower end-in other words, the width of the recess is the same at its back wall, but at the face Y of the safe-back the recess graduallybecomes narrower toward its lower end or portion, which t-hus has va dovetailed form in horizontal section, which *corresponds to the form of the tenon f of a cross-bar F, which may be slipped into the top of the recess H and then be pushed down into the recess, so as to lock roo with the safe-back- The ends C C of the safe are provided with dowels c, which are adapted to holes made for them in the front and back of the piece of furniture. With this construction it is obvious, when the front and back A B are set against the ends C C, the dowels c of which enter the parts A B, that one end tenen f of the cross-bars F used in the piece of furniture may be set directly into the larger part .g of the recess G of the front A, and the cross-bar, when in the inclined position indicated for one bar in Fig. .2 of the drawings, may then readily be entered into the gradually-deepening opposite recess H, and may then be pushed down to the bottoms of both the recesses G II, tc interlock securely with the safe front and back, which will be in contact with the cross-bar shoulders f at the bases of the tenons f, and the front and back cannot pull away from the crossbar. As the end dowels c enter the holes in the front and back A B, the ends C C will thus be locked securely to the front and back, and when all the cross-bars F are in place the entire structure will be held together in a most substantial manner, and the cross-bars will form iirm rests or supports for the shelves I of the safe or wardrobe. The cross-bars F would by their end tenons f rest in the contracted lower parts of the front recesses G; but as a safeguard against Slipping upward of the tenons in these recesses pins J may be set into the cornerposts a of the `front above the tenons, as shown in Figs. 2, 4, and 5 of the drawings. Figs. 4t and 5 of the drawings, illustrate the fit of the cross-bar tenons in the recesses G of the safe-front A, and Figs. 3, 6, and 7 show hoW the cross-bar tenons enter the recesses I'I of the back B ofl the safe.

I prefer to make the cross-bars F round and with round tenons, because they may be more cheaply madein this than in other form, and they may be more quickly and easily fitted to the safe front and back by unskilled work men, as the tenons will always freely en- It is obvious that by using cross-bars F having dovetail tenons, and providing` recesses in the front and back A B to receive the tenons, substantially as above described, the corner posts or pieces a b of the parts A B may be made very much thinner than would otherwise be allowable, and thus will promote economy in first cost of the piece of furniture, and will also allow it to be packed in much smaller space than would otherwise be possible for economical storage or for shipment in knockdown condition, as projecting cleats on the safe or wardrobe ends for supporting the shelves are dispensed with, and the tenoned cross-bars may be stowed away in the drawers of the safe or wardrobe, and thus occupy little or no packing-space. Y

Any one or more of the shelves I may be 4removed at any time from the set-up piece of furniture, as will readily be understood.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is- Y l. Knockdown furniture made with front and back portions provided with dovetailshaped recesses, combined with round crossbars having round dovetail-shaped end tenons adapted to said recesses, substantially as herein set forth.

2. In knockdown furniture, the coinbination, with a front A and back D, of opposin g recesses G Il in said parts, said recesses G having` a contracted dovetail-shaped lower portion g', and the inclined recesses I-I, having a contracted and dovetail shape at the lower portion, and cross-bars F, having dovetail end tenons f fitting said recesses, substantially as herein set forth.

ARTHUR lVHI'lE.

lVitnesses:

CHAs. VAN NosTRAND, CHAs. MARTIN. 

